LAS

Flew into Las Vegas Sunday night and it's 109 degrees here in the dark. It makes me question why there is a major metropolitan area here. It's the 28th largest city in America as of last year, up dramatically over the last 20 years.  It's nearly doubled in population in that time. I cannot fathom why. Las Vegas is market rank 33 if you are about your MSAs. you know I do.

There are no traditional college stations or community stations in Las Vegas leaving a great gaping void on their radio dial. Surprisingly it has bupkis for Pirate Radio. Andrew Yoder wrote a book called Pirate radio Broadcasts which catalogs those fun but illicit transmissions. It mentions Las Vegas once, and only because a Pirate in Alberta broadcast a recording of a commercial station from Vegas.  It's not inspiring. At the bottom of the dial is 88.1 KCEP an all Urban AC. It's housed in an old school house.  They play a little gospel on the weekends but the rest is pretty commercial and predictable. I cant get too excited about it.  It leaves us with NPR courtesy of KNPR 88.9. Then just up the dial a bit KNCV 89.7 runs classical. It's a lot of syndicated programming, but strangely KNPR carries a couple odd ball shows like Vinyl Cafe, a CBC production.

91.5 KUNV runs Jazz all day. Jazz and Classical are the safe havens of public radio programming.Of the two I prefer Jazz, more specifically swing , and Bebop neither of which seem to get any airtime on KUNV. However, their The Jazz Legends Preservation Project warrants mention. they are conducting a series of interviews with local Jazz musicians to help to preserve and maintain jazz music.  KJUL up on 104.7 actually runs nostalgia with a decent and fairly respectable playlist. They spin your Ratpack singles which is appropriate for sin City but also your Petula Clark's, and some straight-laced oldies like Bobby Darin and even the Lettermen.

On the AM band pickings are still slim. 790 KBET-AM which supposedly flipped to Sports was still running country oldies when I tuned in.  KSHP-AM 1400 what's supposed to be an all-shopping station was running sports talk. Even that was a let down.

All Shopping Radio K-SHOP

Way back in 1985, 92.1 WBKF was a perfectly normal radio station in Macclenny, Florida, that (also typically) played country music and church programs. The station was bought by Sarah and Greg Perich; who left things initially relatively unchanged. The call letters flipped to WJXR and it re-branded as "Shark Country" and the religious programming stayed put. Then they started their own morning show starring themselves.. and changed the logo. All relatively innocuous.

The Bargain Channel Program was started as a once-a-week show. As more listeners tuned in, the program hours increased. The Bargain Channel slowly became a 5-day program that started at 8 a.m. and ended at 9 p.m. Country music was moved to overnights.

By 1993 WJXR was an affiliate of ABC Radio Networks and FRN (a local FL sports network) hosting Florida Gator football, the local Baker County sports, Jacksonville Suns, Trinity Christian Academy football, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Jacksonville Tomcats. (lots of college ball) The Bargain Channel now airs 7 days a week from 6 a.m. to midnight. The staff includes more than 25 people, far from the two who first assumed all titles. All offices are opened 7 days a week, times vary.
While WJXR may have ben the first shopping radio outlet, KSHP is the first to do it 24/7. KSHP "Retail Radio" http://www.kshp.com/
It's in vegas. Of course.